Chapter 341: Strange Person

Chapter 341: Chapter 341: Strange Person

Jiang Xia and the others all had exceptionally high spiritual power. Combined with the fact that they’d spent their entire lives on the Capital Star, they had never witnessed a scene like this.

Seeing the man’s wound, Jiang Xia grimaced in shared pain. "That looks like it hurts."

A veteran beside them, long inured to such sights, skillfully collected the Insect Clan corpses from the battlefield. "Perfectly normal," he said. "Stay here long enough, and it’s bound to happen to you. It’s not so bad. A few days in a Treatment Pod, and he’ll be good as new."

Mu Tangfeng’s clear, dark eyes shifted toward the veteran. He couldn’t help but ask, "Has Admiral He ever gone through something like this?"

The veteran tossed an Insect Clan corpse into a special Space Bag, then turned to him with a grin. "You’ve come to the right person. I enlisted just two months after the Admiral. Back then, we even fought on the same battlefield. In the beginning, he didn’t have enough experience and took a hit just as bad as this one."

"But, an Admiral is an Admiral for a reason. He learned incredibly fast. Later on, he could take on a thousand members of the Insect Clan all by himself. A hundred of them like today? For him, that’s a walk in the park. It’s nothing."

"Heh heh. As for me, I’m still just a regular soldier after all these years."

As he said this, he blushed slightly. Luckily, his dark skin made it hard to notice.

But even if Jiang Xia and Mu Tangfeng noticed, neither would mock him for it. On the contrary, they admired his optimistic outlook.

For the rest of the time, the three of them helped clean up the Insect Clan corpses. While the Insect Clan were repulsive, some of their body parts were very useful for military purposes. Their blood, however, was something to be handled with extreme care to avoid injury.

Once the cleanup was finished, the squad returned to the military base.

Only a portion of the new recruits had participated in the operation. During a break, those who had stayed behind at the base saw the returning soldiers and crowded around, eager for details.

"How was it?"

"Were there a lot of them? I’ve never seen a large-scale Insect Clan battle. I hope my legs don’t turn to jelly when it’s my turn."

"Tch. What kind of grown man gets weak in the knees so easily?"

The group erupted in boisterous jeers.

Having never seen the true cruelty of the battlefield, they still held a naive eagerness to slaughter the Insect Clan.

The questions were directed at Jiang Xia’s group of three as well.

Jiang Xia couldn’t bring himself to recall the scene. The moment he tried, the image of rotten flesh hanging off the man’s bones would flash in his mind—like a corpse that had been decaying for days, permeated with the foul stench of the Insect Clan.

In truth, the entire battlefield had been drenched in Insect Clan blood, and the smell was unbearable.

The moment the break started, Jiang Xia and his friends had rushed off to shower. They couldn’t stand the stench clinging to them.

So when asked, they didn’t hold anything back.

Perhaps because they had all spent this time together in the recruit barracks, enduring the same grueling training, a sense of camaraderie had formed. The atmosphere was quite harmonious.

The recruits chatted about the battle, lamenting the dangers of fighting the Insect Clan and expressing concern for their injured comrade. The conversation inevitably ended with shared expressions of hatred and disgust for the enemy.

The talk of battle was sobering, and after they finished, the atmosphere grew heavy and silent. Perhaps trying to break the somber mood, one of the men suddenly spoke up in a conspiratorial whisper. "Hey, you guys know Wang Ahsan from Squad 3?"

"Haha, speaking of which, his name is pretty funny. It’s almost like he was fated to be in Squad 3 with a name like that."

Yan Huoshui’s eyes narrowed slightly, a faint smile playing on his lips. He adopted an expression of earnest attention. "Don’t know him. What about him?"

He was the leader of Squad 1, while Jiang Xia and Mu Tangfeng led Squads 6 and 9, respectively. None of them were familiar with anyone from Squad 3.

The man, who was from Squad 4, continued, "He’s a pretty interesting guy. We’ve been on the Border Defense Star for so many days, and I’ve hardly ever seen him say a word. He walks around with a stiff expression all day. Anyone who didn’t know better would think someone owes him a fortune."

"He’s a hard worker in training, though. Always learning quietly by himself."

Jiang Xia yawned as he listened. Mu Tangfeng was also spacing out, his gaze wandering across the rest area and over the other men, but his mind was completely occupied with his wife.

’It seems it’s my turn to be with Lanlan today.’

’Hehe, I’m so happy~’

’Too bad this is just the mid-training break. It’s only fifteen minutes. I’ll have to wait until lunch.’

Of the three of them, only Yan Huoshui was listening intently, and the other man was happy to have a receptive audience.

Yan Huoshui asked, "I don’t think I’ve heard of Wang Ahsan. Which one is he?"

The man scanned the area, but didn’t see him. "He’s not here," he muttered. "Probably still on the training grounds practicing his moves."

"What a King of Competition!"

Since the break was short, everyone just chatted for a bit, rehydrated, grabbed a few snacks from the rest area, and then promptly returned to the training grounds.

Once they were back on the training grounds, the man beside Yan Huoshui nudged his head toward Squad 3. He pointed to a person standing at the very back of the formation. "See him? That’s the one."

Yan Huoshui’s gaze swept over. The man’s face was unremarkable, with no memorable features. He had the same black eyes as most Beastmen, a buzz cut, and slightly dark skin. His face was set in a deadpan expression and covered in sweat from training. He looked like a tough nut to crack.

But when the person next to him gave him a push, he simply stepped aside with the same blank expression, showing no further reaction.

By now, Yan Huoshui had become familiar with almost everyone in the recruit barracks, but he truly had no recollection of this man.

’Perhaps he rarely takes breaks, focusing only on training.’

Although the man hadn’t done anything else out of the ordinary, Yan Huoshui quietly committed his face to memory.

Over the past few days, Ye Ming had already investigated the recruits’ files from the screening office. He had reported that nothing was amiss and everyone’s background was clean, but there was always a chance something had been missed.

So that evening, Yan Huoshui gave Wang Ahsan’s name to Ye Ming and asked him to pull up the man’s file.

Ye Ming quickly found the file and sent it to them. "I looked at this guy last time. He was one of the last members selected by the screening office. He’s from Black Bear Star, a Black Bear Beastman, Spiritual Power S-level. Unmarried, parents are deceased, he’s the only one left in his family. His stated goal for enlisting as a volunteer is the hope of becoming a permanent member of the regular army."

Ye Ming had a faint memory of the file; after all, an S-level Beastman was considered exceptional.

And if outstanding members were discovered among the volunteers, Admiral He could report to the Monarch and have them selected to join the army. Compared to the official military selection process held once every three years, enlisting as a volunteer was a good short-term path.

So, on the surface, there was nothing unusual about Wang Ahsan’s file.

After reading it, Yan Huoshui said nothing more. ’Maybe I’m just overthinking things,’ he thought.

In fact, he had made a point of observing Wang Ahsan today. Just as the other man had said, he was indeed a King of Competition, participating in every training exercise with intense focus and never engaging in idle chatter.

However, on one rare occasion when the man spoke, Yan Huoshui happened to overhear his voice. It sounded like an old, obsolete, derelict machine—a grating, unpleasant shriek of grinding gears, both muffled and coarse.

’That’s probably why he doesn’t like to talk,’ he mused.

Beyond that, there was truly nothing else.